


Retroactive

by InsaneTrollLogic



Series: CW Impulse Fic [8]
Category: Impulse (Comics), The Flash (Comics), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Episode, Episode: s01e23 Fast Enough, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Kid Fic, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 06:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10077617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneTrollLogic/pseuds/InsaneTrollLogic
Summary: Bart follows Wally home. Barry runs back in time to save his mother. The singularity threatens to destroy them all.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Bit of a time skip from the last one, but that's the beauty of writing these as one shots. I can always go back and fill in gaps later. [Plotline follows 1x23.]

Barry gets the call twenty minutes before the end of his shift. An increasingly familiar number since Bart had been avoiding STAR labs and Harrison Wells. “Hey, Wally.”

Bart’s initial instructions while heading to the past were to find the Flash—Wally West—for help. He’d found Barry instead and for a while he’d thought the idea of a different Flash was an artifact of a parallel universe.

Until Bart managed to track down Wally. This universe’s Wally was a seventeen year old college freshman at Keystone University. Not a speedster himself, but surprisingly willing to put up with Barry’s tornado of a son.

“You know I love your kid, right?” Wally says. “But I’m feeling like I should be charging babysitting.”

“He’s there again?”

“He started doing my physics homework for me. And I don’t mean to sound like a total nerd, but I was planning on working through that by myself.”

Barry scrubs a hand over his face. “I can be there in twenty seconds if he’s bothering you.”

“Seriously man, it’s fine. I like the kid. But I wouldn’t mind you slipping me a twenty for pizza.”

The poor kid has no idea. “Somehow I think I might be getting the better of that deal. You have seen Bart eat before, right?”

“Actually, yes I have. But he says he had one of those protein bars so he could eat like a normal person.” Wally laughs. “I mean a normal appetite for Bart is still pretty awe inspiring. But really, I think he could use some kind of a pick me up. He seems pretty freaked out. Was his uncle really kidnapped? Is he a speedster, too?”

“We found him,” Barry says. “And no, Eddie’s just a normal guy. But I can see why Bart’s still freaked out.”

Especially since they have Eobard Thawne in the pipeline. In Bart’s universe Thawne’s crimes included a near dictatorial rule and the murder of Don Allen. Bart’s father.

“He said you caught that freak in yellow,” Wally says. “That true?”

“Yeah. We’ve got him in lock up. He’s not really someone we can give to the police. So we’re… storing him. Bart’s got more issues with him than I do. I guess he wasn’t up to hang out in the same building.”

“I don’t blame him.” He can hear the worry in Wally’s voice. “I can keep him for the night if you want.”

“What do you want in payment?”

A moment’s consideration and then: “I want to meet the guy who lights himself on fire.”

“Firestorm?” Barry clarifies.

“You’re literally my favorite person.” Wally laughs. “So can I meet him?”

“There are two of him. It’s a long story. And you can absolutely meet everyone as soon as this is over.”

“Best trade I ever made,” Wally crows.

“Talk to me again when you’ve finished feeding him.”

Laughter, and that’s something nice to hear after weeks of tension. Then the sounds of a small scuffle before Bart’s voice chirps out over the phone. “Dad!”

“Hey, Slugger,” Barry says, his dad’s old nickname for him slipping out before he can stop himself. “You know you’re supposed to call me before heading over to Wally’s.”

“Iknowbut—”

“Yeah, I know it’s weird to have him trapped.”

“Whatcanwedowithhim? Dowehavetokeephim? He’sgoingtotrytotalkihswayoutofit.”

Barry shook his head, a rush of fondness running through him. Talking that fast had created a crackle of static through the connection. He’d only caught one word in four. “I missed all of that, buddy. You’ll have to slow down.”

“I don’t usually have to with you,” Bart complains.

“Phones and surges of electricity don’t always get along,” Barry says. “Besides, I know Wally loves to eavesdrop, so throw him a bone. So how about we do it again. Slower.”

He can practically hear the kid’s pout in his voice. “He’ll try to talk his way out of there.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because that’s what he does. Grandma Iris told me. He always has something to trade.”

“It’s a different guy, Bart.”

“But he’s not,” Bart says. “He’s exactly the same. He wants to hurt you. Don’t trust him.”

“Bart, I don’t think there’s a single thing Wells can say that would make me let him go.”

* * *

The Reverse Flash smirks at him from the depths of the pipeline and says, “You can go back and save your mother.”

* * *

He turns the idea over in his head. Talks to Stein, Ronnie and Cisco to confirm that it’s a real possibility. Bart’s very existence in the past proves it’s possible to disrupt a timeline with little ill effect.

He thinks about what happened to his dad that night. What might happen to Bart if he’s Barry’s not the Flash when he travels back in time. He considers the near-certainty that Wells had this planned the entire time. And the crushing knowledge that his mother only died because of a timeline disruption in the first place.

He does a risk assessment. Talks to Iris. Talks to Joe. Talks to Caitlin.

Wonders if he would still be the Flash if his mother never died. If the bolt of lightning was something fate chose for him, or if it was a freak of chance that would have turned any forensic analyst in the lab into a speedster. His head hurts. There are too many variables to consider and his gut screams at him not to trust Wells.

But it’s his _mom_.

Maybe, just this once, it’s okay to be selfish.

* * *

The past is a scene from his nightmares.

Barry stumbles out of the speed force in his childhood bedroom. From downstairs, he hears screaming, a childish voice yelling. “Mom!”

He follows the voice, watches the swirl of red and yellow through a crack in the doorway. Waiting for the moment, for his one chance to save his mom.

But then the Flash stops running, holds up a hand and Barry almost swallows his tongue.

Because that’s not him under the cowl.

Sure it looks enough like him, and the white lenses over the eyes is probably something he should talk to Cisco about adding to the costume for extra security.

But even when it’s vibrating and half-masked, Barry knows that face.

Even with a few extra years on it, he’d recognize Bart anywhere.

Bart’s mouth rounds in surprise and then his gaze flickers back to Barry’s mother.

He looks back to Barry and very distinctly mouths, _Don’t_.

Then he darts towards Barry’s younger self, leaving a trail of lightning behind him.

Barry closes the door. Looks away.

Listens to his mother’s murder.

* * *

She’s gone. Her hand is slack in Barry’s grip. His mother dead. Again.

His face is wet. He can’t make himself let go. He’s running out of time. The wormhole can only be open for so long. But her hand is still warm.

There’s a sound from somewhere behind him, like a faint crackle of electricity.

Barry stands as he turns, his mother’s hand slipping from his fingertips.

Bart’s pushed the cowl back. He’s got the same mop of hair, the big gold eyes, but the face has thinned out through the years, the faint beginnings of a five o’clock shadow rough around his cheeks. Bart tugs him into a hug that Barry can’t make himself return. Then he pulls back to examine Barry, his grip still firm on either of Barry’s forearms. “Dad!” he says.

And that’s something strange to hear, because while he’s gotten used to being called _Dad_ , this Bart is almost the same age as him.

He’s also staring at Barry like he’s seen a ghost.

Unwillingly, he flashes back to the headline in the newspaper from the future. _Flash Missing, Vanishes in Crisis._

“Why couldn’t I save her?” Barry asks.

Bart chews on his lip, his gloved hand tightening on Barry’s arm. He’s taller than Barry, and if Barry wasn’t standing next to his mother’s corpse, he thinks that might knock his world askew. He doesn’t answer Barry’s question, just pulls him back into a tight hug.

“Imissedyou,” Bart whispers, slipping into the same hurried pace he’d had at age twelve.

“I’m right here,” Barry says.

“Butyou’renot,” Bart whines. “You’refightingtheReverseFlashandI’mwearingyourcostu—”

A flash of yellow cuts Bart off mid-word and then he’s the Flash again, locked in a fight for his life.

It hits Barry like a bullet.

Bart’s wrong. Barry’s not fighting to Reverse Flash right now. _Bart_ is fighting the Reverse Flash. His mom is still dead and somewhere back in the right timeline, Eobard Thawne is about to make his escape.

Barry can’t let that happen.

He _won’t_.

In the distance, he can see a blur of red and yellow, Eobard Thawne and the man Bart grows into. He runs the opposite way. Back towards the little boy.

* * *

“Just so we’re clear,” Eobard says. His voice is even, the steady voice of his mentor for the past year. “After I kill you, I’m going to kill them. And after them, I’m going to kill _Impulse._ Then your father. I always win, Flash.”

A gunshot rings out.

Eddie collapses to the ground.

And then everything goes to hell.

* * *

The singularity swirls above him.

Barry has no doubt that the calculations are dire.  He’s mostly tuned out Stein and Cisco’s observations, but they would be able to tell him how many lives he’d risked when he took this stupid chance. A chance he hadn’t even managed to follow through on.

And now, he’s staring up at the void, wondering how long it will be before the singularity touches Wally’s place in Keystone. How much longer Bart is safe.

Wondering if Bart’s even _there_ after Eddie... erased Eobard from the timeline.

Because Bart’s related to Eobard, too. Maybe not the one from this universe, but Barry can’t remember who’d initially brought that up. Was it Wells? Could he trust anything the man’s ever said?

Barry’s overcome with the crushing urge to go check on the kid. Just to make sure the kid’s still there.

Only he doesn’t have the _time._

“Hey Joe,” he says.

“Yeah, son.”

“You mind taking care of Bart for me?”

“Barry, don’t talk like that. It’s…”

“I need to hear you say it,” Barry whispers.

Joe makes a move to argue, but snaps his mouth back shut. After a second, he regroups. “He’s family. He’ll always have a place.”

“Thank you,” Barry replies.

“Barry,” Stein says, cutting through their moment. “You must realize, an event of this magnitude… It cannot be stopped.”

Barry, pulls up his cowl. “I have to try.”

And he runs.

**Author's Note:**

> [I've been looking forward to the moment where it was Bart under the Flash's cowl for like four stories. Y'all have no idea]


End file.
